Ukraine floats the theory it may have been tricked into shooting down the plane Russia says was full of Ukrainian POWs

• A Russian military transport plane crashed Wednesday in a border region near Ukraine.
• Russia accused Ukraine of shooting it down, killing 74 people on board, including prisoners of war.

Ukraine has suggested that it may have been tricked into shooting down a plane that Russia claims was carrying 74 people, including 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Russia said there were no survivors after an Il-76 plane crashed near Yablonovo, 44 miles southeast of the Belgorod border region of Russia.

In a post on Telegram Wednesday, Ukraine's military intelligence (GUR), said that Russia had not requested safe passage for the plane.

"The landing of a transport plane in a 30-kilometer zone of hostilities cannot be safe and in any case must be discussed by both sides, because otherwise, it endangers the entire exchange process," said the GUR.

"Based on this, we may be talking about planned and deliberate actions by the Russian Federation to destabilize the situation in Ukraine and weaken the international support for our state."

Ukraine's Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said that Russia was seeking to undermine Ukraine's international support by exploiting the plane crash.

"During the Jan. 24, 2024, massive Russian propaganda targets external audiences with a flow of fake news in an attempt to discredit Ukraine in front of the international community," Oleshchuk wrote on his Telegram channel, reported Ukrainian media.

As well as prisoners of war, Russia said the plane was carrying six Russian crew and three escorts. It said its radar registered the launch of two missiles from Ukraine's Kharkiv region that borders Belgorod.

Business Insider could not confirm what caused the crash or who was on board.

The Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of committing a "terrorist act," and said the plane was downed by anti-aircraft missiles fired from the village of Lyptsi in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine.

Ukrainian military intelligence initially said the plane had been carrying Russian S-300 air defense missiles, reported Ukrainska Pravda.

But the later statement from the intelligence directorate has been seen as a tacit admission that prisoners were on board.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for an international investigation into the incident and accused Russia of "playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in response said that if Zelenskyy had meant an investigation into "the criminal actions of the Kyiv regime" then it was definitely needed.

An unnamed US official told the Associated Press that it was unclear whether there were Ukrainian POWs aboard. "We've seen the reports, but we're not in any position to confirm them," US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.